Professional negligence: no win no fee

Professional Negligence claims against solicitors and other professional have become more accessible owing to the conditional fee agreements "no win no fee".

Meade-King, solicitors in Bristol, provides specialist advice on professional negligence. Our solicitors assess your professional negligence claim before entering into a "no win no fee" agreement. Our solicitors provide a free half hour initial appraisal of a professional negligence case. We have succeeded in professional negligence claims against solicitors, accountants and surveyors. Our solicitors deal with a majority of professional negligence cases by conditional fee agreements "no win, no fee". Our clients come from all over the country and abroad.

What is professional negligence?

Professional negligence claims may not arise from every mistake made by a professional (i.e. solicitor, accountant, architect) to allow the claimant compensation for negligence. The broad test to be applied is whether the mistake is one which no reasonably competent professional should have made and whether it has caused the client any financial disadvantage.

Professional negligence: The tests

In broad terms, using a claim against a solicitor as an example, for a claimant in professional negligence to succeed, he or she has to establish:

• existence of a duty of care on the part of the solicitor (other professional). That does not necessarily mean that the claimant is a client of the solicitor (other professional). There must however be close relationship between the two
• breach of duty by the solicitor (other professional)
• existence of a loss
• causation; i.e. that breach of duty by the solicitor (other professional) has caused the loss

Specialist advice on professional negligence

No win no fee arrangements are usually entered into after one of our solicitors has provided essential experienced guidance on the:

• existence of a duty of care
• ·scope of that duty
• quality of the advice that is given by the solicitor (other professional)
• issue of causation
• duty to mitigate
• measure of compensation

A professional negligence claim (whether the claim is against a solicitor, an accountant or a construction professional) will inevitably be defended by an experienced insurer or panel solicitor. It is not advisable to engage a high street solicitor to prosecute a claim. Our Bristol based solicitors provide essential high quality and effective representation in professional negligence claims.

At Meade-King solicitors we will:

• identify the real issues at an early stage
• anticipate the sort of defence which is likely to be argued
• assess the prospects of success of the professional negligence claim
• tell you what is involved in pursuing your claim for professional negligence
• where appropriate, agree a process to encourage settlement

· in the great majority of cases, share the risk involved by operating under conditional fee arrangements "no win no fee".

Typical Professional Negligence Cases

Meade-King solicitors have acted recently in securing damages for professional negligence under conditional fee agreements "no win no fee"of:

• £300k against architects
• £85k against solicitors
• £60k against architects
• £110k against accountants
• £40k against surveyors

Experience

Adam Chivers heads the professional negligence work of Meade-King, solicitors of Bristol. Where applicable, he promotes funding his cases under conditional fee agreements "no win no fee".He is a qualified arbitrator and a member of the regional committee of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association.

He has been recommended in the independent Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession 2007 as "a bright and tenacious operator … commended for bringing a commercially realistic approach to litigation".

Meade King Solicitors
11-12 Queen Square
Bristol, BS1 4NT

T: 0117 926 4121

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